Sea of Shadows eBook - Navy Thriller.com

SEA OF SHADOWS 95
flinch. Some primal part of his brain was screaming at him to run, to get
away from this place. To escape this worthless stretch of water that the
God of death had staked out as a playground. But there wasn’t anywhere
to run to …
“Kensington!” the captain said. “Find out where we were hit!”
The young sub lieutenant stared out the window. In the distance, he
could see that the aft superstructure of their escort, HMS Chatham, was
burning. They’d been hit too, then. Maybe they were all going to die.
“Goddamn it, Kensington!” the captain yelled. “Don’t make me repeat
every order!”
Kensington flinched again. “Yes, sir!” He leaned over the comm box
and punched up the damage control circuit. “Damage Control—Bridge. I
need a damage report.”
There was no answer. Kensington tried again. He paused to wait for a
reply, and that’s when he saw them: two streaks of fire boring through the
night. Coming right toward him. He had just enough time to scream
before the first one slammed into the ship one level below the bridge. A
millisecond later, the deck under his feet erupted into a volcano of fire and
molten steel.
U-307:
Through the lens of the Zeiss-Eltro Optronic 19 attack scope, Kapitan
Gröeler watched the British destroyer surrender to the sea. Clouds of
steam rolled skyward as fire and melted steel drowned themselves in the
dark waves. Oily smoke mingled with the steam, creating billowing black
columns against the white vapor. After a few moments, the waves closed
over the old ship, leaving only a burning oil slick and a handful of floating
debris to mark the destroyer’s grave.
Gröeler’s hands tightened on the grips of the attack scope. What were
the fools doing? The fighters were supposed to keep the British ships
occupied, not attack them! Some idiot of a pilot had pissed his pants and
squeezed off a missile. And now look at this …
The plan called for keeping the British out of the conflict. Gröeler felt
his jaw tighten. That wasn’t going to happen now, was it?
He swung the scope ten degrees to the right and centered the other ship
in his crosshairs. The frigate had a heavy list to starboard, and her guns
and missile launchers were motionless. Her active sonar had fallen silent
as well. Probably she was without power.